Michelle Martini

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David Foster Wallace
“The so-called ‘psychotically depressed’ person who tries to kill herself doesn’t do so out of quote ‘hopelessness’ or any abstract conviction that life’s assets and debits do not square. And surely not because death seems suddenly appealing. The person in whom Its invisible agony reaches a certain unendurable level will kill herself the same way a trapped person will eventually jump from the window of a burning high-rise. Make no mistake about people who leap from burning windows. Their terror of falling from a great height is still just as great as it would be for you or me standing speculatively at the same window just checking out the view; i.e. the fear of falling remains a constant. The variable here is the other terror, the fire’s flames: when the flames get close enough, falling to death becomes the slightly less terrible of two terrors. It’s not desiring the fall; it’s terror of the flames. And yet nobody down on the sidewalk, looking up and yelling ‘Don’t!’ and ‘Hang on!’, can understand the jump. Not really. You’d have to have personally been trapped and felt flames to really understand a terror way beyond falling.”
David Foster Wallace

Caitlin Doughty
“Accepting death doesn't mean you won't be devastated when someone you love dies. It means you will be able to focus on your grief, unburdened by bigger existential questions like, "Why do people die?" and "Why is this happening to me?" Death isn't happening to you. Death is happening to us all.”
Caitlin Doughty, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory

Albert Camus
“There is not love of life without despair about life.”
Albert Camus, Lyrical and Critical Essays

Brené Brown
“We cultivate love when we allow our most vulnerable and powerful selves to be deeply seen and known, and when we honor the spiritual connection that grows from that offering with trust, respect, kindness and affection.

Love is not something we give or get; it is something that we nurture and grow, a connection that can only be cultivated between two people when it exists within each one of them – we can only love others as much as we love ourselves.

Shame, blame, disrespect, betrayal, and the withholding of affection damage the roots from which love grows. Love can only survive these injuries if they are acknowledged, healed and rare.”
Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection

Mitch Albom
“The story of my recent life.' I like that phrase. It makes more sense than 'the story of my life', because we get so many lives between birth and death. A life to be a child. A life to come of age. A life to wander, to settle, to fall in love, to parent, to test our promise, to realize our mortality- and in some lucky cases, to do something after that realization.”
Mitch Albom, Have a Little Faith: a True Story

82820 Ask Anne Lamott - Thursday, December 12th! — 1184 members — last activity Dec 16, 2014 10:21AM
Join us for a special discussion with author Anne Lamott on Thursday, December 12th! Anne will be discussing her latest book, Stitches, a follow u ...more
179584 Our Shared Shelf — 222851 members — last activity Apr 30, 2026 03:29PM
OUR SHARED SHELF IS CURRENTLY DORMANT AND NOT MANAGED BY EMMA AND HER TEAM. Dear Readers, As part of my work with UN Women, I have started reading ...more
year in books
Michelle
1,806 books | 104 friends

Marks54
1,658 books | 200 friends

Allison
1,356 books | 38 friends

Beth
2,710 books | 676 friends

Brianna
1,193 books | 57 friends

Elliott
2,911 books | 247 friends

Trevor
1,875 books | 4,549 friends

Elizabeth
4,782 books | 54 friends

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The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Nerdfighter Spiritual List
113 books — 35 voters
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Best Non-Fiction (no biographies)
6,267 books — 8,081 voters

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